THE RETURN TO THE VEIL AMONG UNDERGRADUATE FEMALES AT MINYA UNIVERSITY, EGYPT
Abstract
The majority of Egyptian women have worn the Western style of dress and discarded the veil sometime in the late 1940's. Now they are trying to revive the phenomenon of wearing the veil. This phenomenon is most pronounced among the young educated Egyptian women. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that might be contributing to the return of the veil among undergraduate females at Minya University in Egypt. A combination of structured procedures, namely, a questionnaire developed by the investigator; the Views of Life Scale short form developed by Dr. G. Diaz, 1965; and the Mooney Problem Check List of the Psychological Corporation and open-ended procedures, namely, interviews and participant observation are used to obtain data from random sample of 80 female students, 40 veiled and 40 nonveiled. One-way analysis of variance is used to determine the differences in views between veiled and nonveiled groups. These views include: reasons for wearing the veil; views of life; and problems perceived in facing life. The results of the analysis reveal that, (1) the veiled and nonveiled groups both rank religious and psychological factors as the most important reasons for wearing the veil; (2) both groups show similar styles of coping with life, both revealing more active than passive views of life; (3) both groups show similarity in the kinds and frequency of problems they perceive themselves facing in life, with one exception. The Future Vocational and Educational problems measure of the nonveiled group shows that they have more problems in this specific aspect than the veiled women. The study concludes that the return to veil wearing among undergraduate female students at Minya University in Egypt is a part of a religious revitalization movement that is taking place in Egypt. Wallace model of revitalization process is utilized to explain this phenomenon.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Cultural anthropology
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